Three New Jersey men are accused of defrauding more than 80 clients, mostly their own friends and family, in a $3.7 million oil and natural gas scheme.
Joseph Laura, of Freehold, N.J.; Anthony Sichenzio, of Warren, N.J.; and Walter Gil de Rubio, of Freehold, N.J. were accused of misusing and misappropriating investor funds, mostly for personal expenses, in a suit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
From June 2013 to January 2017, the defendants allegedly conducted a scheme to defraud investors and to misappropriate and misuse their funds.
Many of the investors caught in the defendants’ alleged scheme were social and business acquaintances who were told that they were being offered a special opportunity only available to friends and family.
The defendants raised more than $3.7 million from at least 80 different investors through the sale of securities of Pristec America Inc., a company incorporated by Laura, and Pristec AG, an Austrian company that held the rights to a crude oil processing technology.
During the scheme, the defendants are alleged to have sold securities in the form of revenue sharing, stock purchase and convertible loan agreements.
Less than half of the $3.7 million raised went to legitimate business use, according to the SEC. Laura is alleged to have spent much of it on personal expenses and loans, and to have directed substantial amounts to both Sichenzio and Gil de Rubio for reasons unrelated to Pristec’s business.
Sichenzio and Gil de Rubio solicited investors into the scheme without disclosing the misuse and misappropriation of funds, according to the SEC’s complaint.
In its complaint, the SEC claims that the agreements and oral solicitation by the defendants both contained misrepresentations and omissions of material facts concerning Pristec’s oil processing technology and financial condition, the performance of the investments, and the use of investor funds.
The agreements also allegedly contained unreasonably optimistic projections of investor returns.